3. David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg is a buccaneer director par excellence. He pioneered 'Body Horror' with his early work - Rabid and Shivers - generating quite a bit of critical revulsion and controversy. Cronenberg's next batch of films were Scanners, Videodrome and The Brood - three excellent films which also stuck their necks out in terms of content and themes. Videodrome in particular, messed with audiences' minds, with its depiction of a weird television signal which features torture and extreme violence. . I think that Dead Ringers was a very buccaneering film from Cronenberg. It was a ballsy subject to tackle - two identical twin gynaecologists who fall in love with the same woman, and end up dissipating into drug abuse and madness. I find this film Cronenberg's creepiest movie - immensely helped by Jeremy Irons' amazing performance as the two twins. Further instances of pioneering in Cronenberg's career include making a film adaptation of William S Burroughs' 'unfilmable' novel Naked Lunch. Crash caused an absolute storm when it was released in 1996. Dealing with a group of car crash fetishists, it led to pandemonium in the British tabloids for its extreme and uncompromising content. This move to adapt JG Ballard's novel of the same name was Cronenberg's highest risk in his career. Subsequent films were interesting and inventive but do not resemble the let's-take-a-risk spirit of Crash. Cronenberg has been called one of the most audacious film makers of all time and I thoroughly agree with this statement. Constantly pushing boundaries no matter what type of film he is directing, Cronenberg is a maverick buccaneer of laudable proportions.